After taking the two stations silent on July 31, IVOX Media will relaunch 920 KKGX/99.1 K256CU Palm Springs and 1340 KWXY/92.3 K222DA Cathedral City CA today.
The stations will relaunch at 12pm on Sunday with a four hour special hosted by Wink Martindale celebrating Frank Sinatra’s birthday. Following an immediate replay, both stations will then air Christmas music through December 27, with KKGX continuing until January 1. KWXY will relaunch on 12/27 as “KWXY Music Radio” with what owner Louie Comella tells the Palm Springs Desert Sun, will feature “a wide range of genres and generations, like big band, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll from roughly the 1940s through the 1970s”. Weekends will include specialty shows for local music, Country, Punk Rock, Rockabilly, Showtunes, and Spanish language music. Martindale will host a show on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays.
KKGX will return to a Talk format with programming that Comella tells the newspaper will include a “hyperlocal morning show” featuring local journalists, a show hosted by former local TV anchor Joe Smith and four comedy shows.
IVOX Media acquired KKGX and KWXY earlier this year from Gary Wing’s Desert Broadcasters LLC for $105,000. Comella separately purchased the station’s studio building for $549,000. The stations went silent with the station’s equipment in a state of disrepair needing months to fix.